It’s because views such as shown here that it is so easy to manipulate and mislead Americans. It seems few of take much time to understand issues or to seek the facts about anything.
You have heard that the rich don’t pay their fair share, that they avoid taxes and more. You have heard we can finance Social Security, expand social programs if we raise taxes on the wealthy, just the wealthy.
“To the best of your knowledge,” asked a new poll, “how much do you think the top 1% of taxpayers by income account for in terms of share of total federal income taxes paid: 1%, 12%, 42%, or 64%?”
The correct answer, as of 2020, is 42%. But less than a quarter of those surveyed guessed right. Twenty-two percent (including more than a third of Democrats) thought the top 1% of taxpayers paid only 1% of income taxes, which is wildly off the mark. Twenty-five percent suggested it was 12% of revenue. Nineteen percent shrugged and said they weren’t sure. As a communications strategy, Republicans could apparently do worse than simply repeat the official IRS data over and over.
The survey, sponsored by the Tax Foundation and conducted by Public Policy Polling, included nearly 2,800 registered voters, and it has other findings in a similar vein. A plurality of respondents, 40%, liked the idea of increasing the child tax credit. But 25% also said that they thought a tax credit and a tax deduction are the same thing. Another 20% incorrectly believed that a deduction is more valuable than a credit, and 19% weren’t sure.
Excerpt: Wall Street Journal By The Editorial Board 4-9-24
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
Informed voters?? People often vote based upon their own pocketbook. Look how a certain party caters to bribing potential voters. And it works! That’s why a certain party does it.
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Even if we were to believe you and go with the 24% -vs- 2%, why should they pay more? And Im sorry but simply because they have it isnt a good enough answer! How about we try spending what we have.
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yes, it is easy to mislead folks so you ask yourself why–best example is the present and future condition of Mr. Biden–we were lied to by the White House and its minions in the press with a few exceptions–that jig is over–but that folks really believed the big lie as they did the Russian collusion story–the Charlottesville story (see snopes)–Hunter’s Laptop and we can go on and on with lies told on both sides of the isle.
more sites like this one where we have charts and graphs that one can study as 1208 provided might be helpful–strong vigorous debate on both sides of any issue would help–people are lied to and mislead because we sometimes have such visceral feelings about issues that no amount of facts will change our minds.
looks like on the federal level we do pretty good even after the 2017 tax legislation–the charts show it is the on the state and local level where we have some issues.
Some of us believe the revenue is there but the spending never ends and simply grows and grows–I think the chickens will be home and roosting somewhere down the road. That day, when it comes, will wipe out a lot of wealth.
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It is factual about the 1% paying 42% of income taxes but that is one nugget of the whole picture. Look at the Tax Foundation charts on percentage paid by income cohorts and you get a clear picture of who pays what by income. Any increase in tax rates will hit the upper wage group heavily because that is where the dollars are. It’s always been the case that we want the tax increases to fall on someone else, but we should be concentrating on how to increase national income so as to increase overall tax collections without worrying about who pays what.
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How about we just spend less!
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Spending less is an absolute. Getting the current Congress types and President types to do that is a hard job. Raising taxes won’t cover the shortages.
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“For years, Americans have been told that the rich are paying a highly disproportionate share of the nation’s taxes. Claims to that effect often focus on just one tax, the federal personal income tax, which is indeed progressive overall. But when the nation’s tax system is viewed in its entirety, it becomes clear that the reality is very different. Despite their enormous incomes and wealth, the nation’s richest taxpayers are paying a share of overall taxes that slightly exceeds their share of income.
As illustrated in the graph below, in 2019, the richest 1 percent of Americans will collect more than $1 in $5 of income in the United States (20.9 percent) and will pay a slightly higher share of the nation’s overall federal, state and local taxes (24.1 percent).”
And the poorest twenty percent earn 2.8% of the income and pay 2.0% of taxes.
https://itep.org/who-pays-taxes-in-america-in-2019/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwyo60BhBiEiwAHmVLJdwHStsNuSGQEzjtM1hjT6XTdmaJociFCASl88mAVNDAi8AffjLXkRoCyoYQAvD_BwE
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I agree that it is more useful to look at the total of all taxes paid, not just federal income taxes but also the value of tax transfers. In the “Myth of American Inequality” by Gramm, Ekelund and Early published in 2022, they used official government statistics from 2017 to show the larger picture. For example: for the bottom through the top quintiles, the average percentage share of national earned income was 1.0, 6.1, 13.0, 22.1 and 57.8 But after taking all taxes paid and total transfers into account, the percentages became 10.9, 11.9, 14.4, 19.4 and 43.4 I do wish politicians with a large megaphone would direct citizens to published reports such as the one you referenced, and mine for a more enlightening view, rather than shouting misleading factoids which are swallowed as true by many.
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“All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others”
Economic inequality in the US is well documented to be just about the worst in the world* both before and after taxes and transfers. I have heard some say (including Mr. Quinn, I believe) that the problem is not inequality, the problem is poverty. Maybe.
Wealth/income within a country is finite. I believe Adam Smith said that the market, the invisible hand should eventually decrease inequality, on both the high and low ends. Competition should limit excessive profits, and wages for even the most menial jobs should provide enough to support a family (comfortably).
The danger in reducing taxes/spending is that one of the biggest targets is welfare/social programs. Many welfare recipients are working, but not earning enough to survive, or are un/underemployed through no fault of their own. It’s a failure of the market. I would argue that in many cases, “excessive” earnings at the high end are failures of the market also.
“If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that.”Barack Obama.
(If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges.Etc., etc, etc.)
*Chile, Mexico, and Turkey are worse.
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markets don’t fail–markets work–the more government interference in markets the greater problems we create.
let’s take inner city education as a problem–test scores are abysmal in so many of these schools– did you send your children to schools in the inner city–would you recommend your child buy a home in the city and then enroll your grandchild in a inner city junior- high or high school?
improvement has come when you introduce vouchers or allow the money to follow student –when students attend KIPP schools or other private schools–when competition from charter schools is available you see even these poor public schools improve.
obviously the teachers unions with their money and efforts going to one political party it is an uphill fight to turn around arguably the worst schools in t country, but it can be done.
And it can be done with a solution that is market oriented .
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nope, when you include employment taxes a la FICA and FICA-Med, you have to view them in proportion to the benefits they fund – very, very progressive, outsides benefits relative to the funding.
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